Real ag agenda seems to be football and pheasants
In Congress, the House aggies aren't exactly tied up with policy debates to address, say, today's soaring food prices, the nation's perilously thin food stocks or a dysfunctional federal dairy policy.
Will all tomorrow’s farms be organic?
Families, careers, whole lives take turns that are completely unpredictable. I mean, one minute you’re looking out the window of your third-floor college dorm...
CCC — the nation’s pantry — is Mother Hubbard bare
It's not the choices you make in the bad times that usually cause you the most trouble. It's the choices you make in the good times that often lead to the biggest disasters.
The circus comes to town
As has been noted here before, most journalists get into the writing game because they cannot do math. I don't mean the hard stuff...
Let’s take a meeting at the USDA
On Dec. 20, 17 people from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, including Secretary Tom Vilsack, 10 from non-governmental organizations, 10 from seed and food...
Forecast for March: Very, very hot
After hiring into the market newsletter biz 30 years ago, my new bosses informed me that I'd sink or swim on how well I...
Motherhood, apple pie and ethanol
Rare is the person, topic or issue that finds the editorial boards of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal in unison....
Looking for the truth in food labeling
When the nearby link of a national grocery chain hosted a beef sale last summer, this carnivore grabbed his checkbook and motored to the...
Debate continues over beef checkoff
It wouldn’t be a new year without the big players in the $80 million-per-year beef checkoff — the Cattlemen’s Beef Board, the Federation of...
Snow days and sledding miracles
Two fat sparrows sit in the trough of a bird feeder outside my office window and eat their way through today’s snowstorm. Six feet...
